Our flight landed in Bangkok after 19 hours of flying. We grabbed a cab and told the cab driver our address. He spoke in broken English about the part of town we were going to have to drive through to get to our hotel. Our fearless leader Jo said, "Yes. We know."
We had our first experience as a team driving through downtown Bangkok. There were girls up and down the streets dressed in short, tight skirts. They were trying to reveal as much of their skin as possible without showing everything. The roads we drove down were narrow and every turn we made looked the same with women standing close to the curb or leaning up against a building trying to entice.
It was midnight in Bangkok and it was wide awake. People were dancing in bars, the street vendors were still out, and men, many of them white men, were walking the streets with bloodshot eyes. You could feel the lust. It was dark. It was heavy. We passed a vendor selling stuffed animals. I remember distinctly seeing a large pink teddy bear. Oh, the irony. Our cab driver slowed to allow a beautiful girl to walk across the street. He pointed and said, "Ladyboy." Then he laughed. I couldn't speak.
We had our first experience as a team driving through downtown Bangkok. There were girls up and down the streets dressed in short, tight skirts. They were trying to reveal as much of their skin as possible without showing everything. The roads we drove down were narrow and every turn we made looked the same with women standing close to the curb or leaning up against a building trying to entice.
It was midnight in Bangkok and it was wide awake. People were dancing in bars, the street vendors were still out, and men, many of them white men, were walking the streets with bloodshot eyes. You could feel the lust. It was dark. It was heavy. We passed a vendor selling stuffed animals. I remember distinctly seeing a large pink teddy bear. Oh, the irony. Our cab driver slowed to allow a beautiful girl to walk across the street. He pointed and said, "Ladyboy." Then he laughed. I couldn't speak.
Every girl we saw had a smile on her face. It was a forced smile. There was a tall white man leaning against a telephone pole looking down at a young Asian girl with a jeer as he looked her up and down.
We finally got to our hotel, the place I hoped would be "safe" from all we had seen. Three white men who spoke a different language were standing to the side as we entered through the doors. We approached the front desk to check in and the sound of the elevator caught my attention. A tiny, beautifully dressed Asian girl stepped out of the elevator. Her hair was curled perfectly. One of the three men, the one that looked the oldest, put his arm around her waist when she walked over to him. He had just paid her for her services.
This was only one night, my first night, in Bangkok and I have several more to go.
This was only one night, my first night, in Bangkok and I have several more to go.
The strongholds in this place are intense, yet... Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.
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